Introducing A Therapist Can't Say That

A Therapist Can't Say That

When you became a therapist, what did you think you were signing up for?

Maybe grad school prepared you for the endless introspection, the awkward intake sessions, and the pile of unfinished notes that is somehow always waiting for you, even when you were pretty sure you just finished it.

Maybe you weren’t too thrown by the onslaught of personal problems your Uber driver suddenly reveals to you when you mention what you do for work.

Maybe you’ve even found a workaround for the lower back pain that comes from sitting in a chair all day or a way to yawn with your mouth closed in that mid-afternoon session so your client doesn’t take your drowsiness personally.

But there’s some other stuff isn’t there?

Probably no one told you that you might join a Facebook group for therapists and be blindsided by a gaggle of other clinicians calling you unethical in response to what you thought was an innocuous question.

You might not have expected how much you’d chafe at the same old clichés being trotted out at trainings and supervision groups and on beautifully designed squares on your Instagram feed, finding yourself wondering, am I the only one who thinks everyone might not be doing their best all the time?

And while you might have been warned against burnout and been told to stave it off with self-care, you weren’t prepared for the moral injury that awaited you when you entered the mental health profession, and how no amount of meditation or strolls in the woods could erase its impact.

For a field that prides itself on helping people talk about things that nobody else talks about, there are a lot of things we don’t talk about. Things that don’t fit with the image of the good therapist that lives in our heads or in the heads of other therapists.

Well, I’m Riva Stout and I’m ready to talk about them.

On my podcast, A Therapist Can’t Say That, we’re going to be getting real about what it’s like to do this job.

We’re going to unpack the clichés you’ve assumed every other therapist believes, and speak out loud the thoughts you’ve thought no other therapist has had.

We’re going to let it get messy, complicated, and uncomfortable. And we’re going to say it’s okay for therapists to disagree, even in public, without immediately accusing each other of being unethical.

Subscribe to A Therapist Can’t Say That on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And be sure to share the show with a therapist friend you know is thinking about this stuff too.

We’re always asking our clients to get out of their comfort zones. Come get out of yours and get real with me on A Therapist Can’t Say That.

Learn more about Riva Stoudt:

• Into the Woods Counseling